Birthday:January 11th 2009Likes:Tug-of-warFavorite Toy:Her puppy-pup.Favorite Food:Cat food when she can get it.Favorite Walk:Charles RiverBest Tricks:High Five, CrawlingArrival Story:I found Lotus online and adopted her through Save-A-Dog in Sudbury, Massachusetts. She is of Southern origin. We thought originally that she was a bassett/beagle mix. It soon became apparent that Lotus was going to be a big dog, so I had her dna tested, and found out she had an English Coonhound parent with some Bassett Hound in the mix. Apparently one litter may have more than one patronage, so it has been interesting to learn about and from Lotus. There are a few videos in my video book where you can see her litter mates. They all look a little different, but have similar, fun-loving ways.Forums Motto:Love, love me do - you know I love youI've Been On Dogster Since:

My Life as a Dog

Having heard recently how beautiful Mt. Auburn Cemetery is, I took Lotus there for a walk on this, the first work holiday of Christmas. Now, Mt. Auburn Cemetery is a big place, which I knew, but now know, is a really large and historic cemetery. I found a place to park and we proceeded to choose a trail, rather than walk the road, and soon found ourselves meandering off and on the Audio Tour #2 route, sans headphones. The route was partially of my choosing, along with Lotus input, because as we went, she started heading off in a direction that was of decided interest to her. In retrospect, she was on the trail of something, although not in her usual nose down, there might be a small rodent here, kind of way. About half an hour in, and several photos, I stopped to survey the landscape, when what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a coyote scarecrow off to the left, approximately 100 feet. Or was it? No geese here, thick tree cover. Is it a real coyote? It is . . . Hmmmm.... what to do . . . it is watching us. We turn back. It turns back in the same direction. I panic and begin to run. Lotus follows, but now she spots the coyote and turns as we run. I'm thinking, what to do? We're off in the trees in a depression. Where are we? I'm not sure. I know only approximately where the car is. I decide to seek higher ground to see where we are and if I can see my Scion. I realize as we do that, I can't breathe because of my deviated septum and I'm rapidly running out of steam. Damn I wish that surgery on my septum had happened last Fall instead of next month. My mind flashes forward. The coyote is following behind. I begin to look for a stick, but the cemetery is so well cared for, that none but the frailest that have recently fallen to the ground are left. I want to find the road that leads to the car, or find a road where a car or funeral or other people might be. It's midweek, and the weather is gloomy. There's almost no one around. Lotus and I keep moving. Finally a security person is heading toward us in his car. I begin waving my arms to flag him down. He stops, window opens. "No dogs allowed in the cemetery ma'am." "I didn't know", I respond. "There's a coyote after us." . . . "No dogs allowed in the cemetery. It's dangerous." "I didn't know. I heard how beautiful it is, that I wanted to come to see it for myself. Can you escort us back to the car?" "Where are you parked." "I don't know, I think it's in that direction", I say, pointing in the direction of my best guess. He can see the fright I'd had. Turning the car around, he escorted me out. "You'll be all right now."

My master took me for a ride this past Tuesday -- it was my 16 month birthday. I had no idea, but when we arrived at our destination, it was a puppy party! All of my litter mates were there. Well, just Kayla and me at first, and the others arrived soon after. We let the humans stand on the deck while we ran around in circles in Kayla's huge backyard. I wasn't worried about the humans -- being as they all stood around -- where else? -- the food on a big table on the deck. I could check in once in a while and they'd be doing the same thing, talk - eat - eat - talk some more - eat again. Sometimes they played with their phones and cameras. They are so cute! Anyway, a good time was had by all, and when it came time to leave, I could see my master was tired, so I bypassed the "pin the leash on the puppy" game, so that we could get home to bed.

If I had opposable thumbs, I suppose I would type something everyday in this diary. As it is, I do not and so I have to wait for my master. At this writing I hope to be sleeping, my master already being informed as to my goings ons and whom I trust implicitly to represent me truthfully in print. (Lotus is sleeping . . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.)

Saturday I visited a park called Dennehy Park which was pretty awesome. There were human trails, but my master walked in the field with me! Since dogs are not allowed to bring their unleashed humans to the park, we had a 30 foot extending leash. She almost stepped on some real snakes -- in the grass! It was cool because she jumped and squealed. I don't know much about snakes -- mostly I like squirrels and have suddenly taken an interest in birds. Birds are fascinating. They fly and they swim and they stand in trees just like squirrels! But I've never seen a bird climb a tree like a squirrel. Squirrels are oh -- so interesting. I want to meet a squirrel. However, everytime I try, the squirrel runs up a tree -- squirrels are very shy. But, I digress . . .

The purpose in going to the park was not only for exploration, but also to check out a dog run. The web site where we learned about the park said to expect it to be muddy, but that it would be fixed soon. When we arrived we found a fenced-in area about 50ft x 30ft for big dogs to play, and a smaller area where smaller dogs could hang. There was a timeout area too, but my master is very well behaved so we didn't need to use that. Was it muddy? No. It was not muddy or dirty at all. The ground moved like sand, it felt like thousands of tiny polished rocks under foot. Some of the dogs don't like it. It was fine for me. Mostly I was a little shy until I met a few of the dogs and got them to run around and chase me.

So on a scale of 1 - 5, 5 being the most awesome park, I give this park a 3+. It was awesome to run around all that open space, and very cool to have a fenced in area where I didn't have to worry about my master, but I would've liked grass or real sand under my feet in the cage, and to have more toys for playing. Someone took my glow-in-the-dark ball and left me a stupid tennis ball too. I can play with the tennis ball... it's just the idea that someone I lent my ball for playing would take it home without asking. So, that's why it gets a 3.

The moral of the story pups is to get out there and try new things. Different parks have different feels, so you won't know until you try each one. It's a great way to hang with the master too.